I was reading my friend’s, “The Legal Genealogist”, blog post: Big Sale and Big Y and thought I would take a moment to share my experience.

A couple of years ago, I did a Y-DNA test from Ancestry.com and got the results and details. Haplagroup J2A was the results and took “my line” back 10,000 years, or some out of this world number. All I want is back to about 1650. So that didn’t do anything for me.

I then found that my Surname has a DNA Project on Family Tree DNA, so at my expense, transferred my results over to FT-DNA. I even had to talk to the FT-DNA folks at a conference to make that all happen. Very nice folks there, very helpful. When the results finally were posted, I have 3 “new” cousins. Actually, I knew one of them, talked to him on the phone, and found that we descend from the same son of Capt. John Worthington. The other 2 people are cousins, one of which had 2 surnames as part of his name, so there was not doubt about the connection. BUT, there was NOT a “hit” across the pond. That is, no one from the UK matching the J2A. So, I let it sit for a couple of years. In fact, it hasn’t changed.

So, Ancestry.com came up with New and Improved DNA testing. I get “cousin” hits several times a week, for 5th to 8th cousin’s. Wow, gonna find something here, even had a couple of closer cousins in these results.

You are supposed to be able to compare your Ancestry Member Tree (AMT) to these “hits” / cousin hits, so I have been keeping my AMT up to date, so that I can compare.

Looking at these other AMTs has been very disappointing. Very, very few common surnames, and only location matches to a state, no closer.

Here is the view that I received:

50% Scandinavian ?????? That’s no where close to J2A.

27% Irish ??? A great-grandmother married an Irishman, in fact I carry his surname as the name most of you know me by. No blood link there.

But the kicker is 5% Great Britain. All of the published genealogies of the Worthington Surname gets back to the 1300’s in England. 5% ???

There is something that I must be totally missing here and am certainly NOT spending any more money on DNA testing. I am struggling to understand the two sets of test results from Ancestry.com. Now, I do accept “new technology”, but there should at least be some common ground for the two sets of tests.

So, Judy, of The Legal Genealogist, lets talk. I guess my real question here is, how close do “the numbers” have to be, in the y-DNA testing. to be considered “cousins”? Is it possible that the notion in that previous blog post might be worth looking into?

Like this:

In preparation for a trip to the National Civil War Museum, in hopes of finding information on D. Ridgely Howard, I did another Google Search for him.

What I stumbled upon was an online Family Tree. It was a great website and Family Tree. I don’t normally look at this type of information, nor record information from them and put into my tree. Most times, the information provided does not contain Source material. It is usually just Names and some times relationships.

Since this step is to Search Broadly, I spent a little time looking at what was on the website. Not only did I find my D. Ridgely Howard, but a Family Group Sheet on his family. Looking at the Surnames on this website, it would be very hard to miss the relationships in this online tree and my own family tree.

Looking at the Ancestors of D. Ridgely Howard, there wasn’t a connection back to my Sarah Howard (6th Great-Grandmother), but there were enough Howards that matched mine. (close but no winner)

Looking at the Family Group Sheet and the Census information that was mentioned here:

the Household was in the Family Group Sheet. So, they MAY BE the right Family Group. But, are there other clues in either the Census Record or this Family Group Sheet.

Two hints, actually appeared. 1) James Howard, the head of household, according to the Family Group Sheet was married twice. 2) D. (now David) Ridgely Howard’s mother was listed as Margaret Oswald CHEW.

James Howard’s other wife (dates or order of marriage not listed) was Sophia Gough RIDGELY. So, that may be a hint for D. (David)’s middle name.

But, David’s mother, Margaret Oswald Chew WAS in my file as my 3rd Cousin 6 times removed, making David Ridgely Howard my 4th Cousin 5 times removed. I haven’t yet proven any of this, so he is not in my file, but I am encouraged to continue this research

Looking at this online tree a little further, besides many names that I know, I found my 6th Great-Grandfather. There was a Descendancy Report feature for my Capt. John Worthington, and many of his children had 6 or 7 generations of descendants, most of which I know and are in my file. However, his youngest son, my 5th Great-Grandfather did not have any descendants, only one of his two wives.

So, by Searching Broadly, found some more hints to follow up on BUT it indicates to me, that I might be on the right track.

I’ll post a follow up on the only SOURCE that was listed for D. Ridgely Howard and the Civil War.

Like this:

While attending an Online Chat in “Second Life”, we were talking about Land Patents. This is a Record Group that I had not looked into before.

Knowing that my Great Grandfather, Samuel Worthington (1843 – 1897) and his wife, Sarah Catherine Reeve (1849 – 1894) moved to Kansas, where my grandfather was born (27 July 1887), I decided to see what I could find. So, off to this website:

This Land Patent was issued 12 day of September, 1912 and signed by President Wm. H. Taft.

“Whereas, a Certificate of the Register of the Land Office at Dodge City, Kansas, has been deposited in the General Land Office, whereby it appears that full payment has been made by the claimant J. Wistar Worthington according in the provisions of the Act of Congress of April 24, 1820, entitled “As Act making further provision for the sale of the Public Lands.” and the acts supplemental thereto, for the Southwest quarter of section twenty-two in township thirty-two south of range forty-three west of the sixth principal meridian, Kansas, containing one hundred sixty acres.”

The Mapping feature on the website did not appear to be working, so that I could see how the other two Land Patients were located. Henry Wilson Worthington, Jr, and Mark Willits Worthington’s Land Patients were in Morton County and appear to be very close.

From: Colonial Mansions of Maryland and Delaware
by John Martin Hammond

BALTIMORE COUNTY. MARYLAND
WORTHINGTON — CONRAD — LEHR

NEAR the hamlet of Glyndon, Baltimore County, Maryland, in the Worthington Valley, is to be found the old Worthington homestead, Montmorenci, built about 1760 by Samuel Worthington who married Mary Tolley. From these two a long line with many branches has descended, and from this generous old home have gone forth many sturdy sons who have played conspicuous parts among their fellows. The house is finely situated on the crest of a hill in the centre of the thousand and more acres which remain to it of the vast tracts over which it lorded when it was young, and is as sound and weatherproof to-day as when it was new.

It is of stone and plaster construction, the walls being very thick and the foundations of a mass sufficient to support a battlemented tower. A winding road leads from the entrance of the grounds to the front of the house, and from the rear the ground falls sharply away to the Italian garden which the present mistress of the old home, Mrs. Mary Conrad Lehr, of Montmorenci and Washington, is devising at the foot of this declivity. The exterior of the house is plain, and there is a small wing at the north end which contains the kitchen and pantries.

The interior arrangement of Montmorenci is like that of many another old Maryland home in that it has a broad hallway from front to back of the house, on which as an axis the other rooms are symmetrically disposed. The winding staircase, however, with its slender mahogany rail and its slim, patrician mahogany spokes, is a very graceful and unusual feature and is perhaps one of the mansion’s greatest beauties.

In Montmorenci may be found a great quantity of rare old furniture which (as is not always the case) has found an appreciative mistress in the daughter of the house of this generation. It would be, perhaps, without interest to mention styles and periods well known or to attempt in any way a description of the furniture, but in each room of the house are to be found pieces to interest the lover of things colonial, and so great a quantity has Mrs. Lehr that she is able to furnish her new home in Washington from Montmorenci without seeming to have robbed that place.

Not far from Montmorenci is Bloomfield, another old Worthington place and built by a son of the builder of Montmorenci. It is a brick homestead and is distinguished for the carving which graces the north wall of the living room on the interior. Though long a Worthington possession, it has been for a number of years the home of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Councilmann.

The Worthington family has already received a brief summary in the chapter devoted to Belvoir, the beautiful mansion on the Severn in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. The tombstone of the founder of the family in Maryland, Capt. John Worthington, is to be found in a vacant field not far from Annapolis and still in good preservation. From it we learn that Captain John died in 1701. His son, John, styled “Merchant” in his will (in which he disposes of a great fortune), married Helen Hammond, daughter of Thomas Hammond and his wife, Mary Heath, and had, among other children, Samuel Worthington, who married Mary Tolley, daughter of Walter Tolley, of Joppa, Baltimore County, Maryland, and built Montmorenci.

From Samuel Worthington the homestead descended through Edward, his son, to John Tolley Worthington, first, to John Tolley Worthington, second, his greatgrandson, who married Mary Govane Hood, daughter of James Hood, of Hood’s Mill, Baltimore County, Maryland. From him it descended to his daughter, Mrs. Sarah Worthington Conrad, now an invalid, whose daughter (who married Louis C. Lehr, Esq.) is the present mistress of Montmorenci.

Colonial Mansions of Maryland and Delaware
by John Martin Hammond
WITH SIXTY-FIVE ILLUSTRATIONS
Philadelphia & London
J. B. Lippincott Company
1914
School of Architecture
Harvard University
Copyright, 1914, by J.B. Lippincott Company
Published September, 1914
Printed by J. B. Lippincott Company
at the Washington Square Press
Philadelphia, U.S.A.

I am not myself a WORTHINGTON descendant but am related to all decendants of Capt. John WORTHINGTON in this country, being descended from his widow; SARAH HOWARD, and her second husband, CAPT. JOHN BRICE. My interest is in tracing the ancestors of CAPT. JOHN WORTHINGTON and CAPT. JOHN BRICE in England and ascertaining whether there may have been a connection between the families of SARAH HOWARD’S two husbands on the other side of the water. It is alleged that CAPT. JOHN BRICE was a son of JOHN BRICE (1620-1685), son of WORTHINGTON BRICE ( d. 1623 ) and his wife JOAN AVERIC; grandson; grandson of HUGH BRICE and his wife DOROTHY WORTHINGTON. I would be most grateful to any clues. Brice M. Clagett, Holly Hill, Friendship, Md. 20758

Additional Information on the wives of REZIN HAMMOND WORTHINGTON: RACHEL SHIPLEY and MARY SHIPLEY were sisters, and daughters of THOMAS CHEW SHIPLEY by his wife ANN GRIFFITH HALL. THOMAS CHEW SHIPLEY was the son TALBOT and RACHEL (nee Owings) CHEW SHIPLEY. (RACHEL was the widow of SAMUEL CHEW). ANN GRIFFITH HALL was the daughter of NICHOLAS and ANN (nee) Griffith Hall.. Nicholas and Ann Hall are buried in at St. Georgels Cemetery, Harford County, Md.

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About this Blog

The purpose of this Blog has changed over time. What started out to be an online version of some old Worthington Descendant Newsletters.
It has become a way to journal about my adventure into Family History, sometimes called Genealogy.
The change for me is more about finding out the stories behind the names and dates that I find about the people I find in my research.